Power distribution centers are known for housing automotive fuses and relays which are operative in the distribution of power throughout an electrical system of an automobile. Typical power distribution centers, such as the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,545, include an electrical component housing body containing a matrix of receptacle cavities for receiving electrical components such as relays, fuses, passive/active electronic components or the like. The electrical components disposed within the cavities engage a bus bar fabricated from electrically conductive material which is shaped to provide an electrical current path from power lead terminals to preselected receptacle cavities.
In this known implementation, illustrated in FIG. 1, the bus bar 10 is configured by stamping sheet steel in a configuration which permits the bending of mating terminals 12. The mating terminals are accessible to receptacles 14 located in preselected receptacle cavities 16. The receptacles 14 are double ended, receiving the mating terminal 12 at one end and a component terminal or lead 18 at the other end and providing an electrical path through the bus bar to an electrical power source. The bus bar 10 is protected from undesirable electrical shorts by an insulator 20 which includes openings that are aligned with the preselected cavities to permit access to the cavities so that receptacle wires or other components can pass through the insulator to effect electrical contact with the bus bar.
Such known power distribution centers, utilizing a stamped metal bus bar to distribute electrical signals, suffer a disadvantage in that the stamping and bending of the bus bar is a relatively elaborate, tool intensive process. The tooling required to stamp and bend the bus bar is costly and involves a process wherein a considerable amount of scrap is generated. The process of stamping and bending results in a bus bar configuration which is dedicated to a particular electrical component mounting configuration. Flexibility is severely limited in implementing such a power distribution center for a variety of electrical accessory options, because a dedicated bus bar must be stamped and bent for each of various particular configurations. Further, a variety of dedicated insulative portions of the housing which accommodates the bus bar, must be fabricated to receive each of the various particular bus bar configurations. Thus, numerous component parts and numerous power distribution centers must be manufactured to accommodate a variety of electrical accessory options.
Other electrical power distribution centers known in the art, implement conventional stamped lead technology, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,752. Conventional stamped lead technology, illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 2A, uses pre-stamped metal circuit elements 22, which are removably disposed in recesses in a plurality of stacked electrically insulative boards. The pre-stamped metal circuit elements 22 act as conductive traces to provide electrical interconnection between points. Male terminal blades 24 are formed on the pre-stamped metal circuit elements, and facilitate a contact surface for interconnection with female receptacles on electrical devices or wiring harnesses. The male terminal blades typically are located at ends of the pre-stamped metal circuit elements, significantly limiting interconnectability with the circuit elements. Interconnection with the female receptacles is feasible only at the points where the male terminal blades are located.
Other disadvantages are inherent in stamped lead technology, including the need for costly tooling required for the pre-stamping and bending of the metal circuit elements. The pre-stamped metal circuit elements generally result in considerable amounts of metal scrap as the metal elements are stamped from large sheets of metal which often cannot be optimally utilized in producing pre-stamped metal circuit elements of the shapes required for mounting in the recesses in the electrically insulative boards. The tooling requirements and scrap negatively impact the cost of producing such electrical power distribution centers, resulting in a relatively high piece part cost for stamped lead technology power distribution centers.
Additionally, as with other stamped conductive elements implemented in power distribution centers known in the art, there is very little flexibility in configuring such systems. The pre-stamped metal circuit elements must be particularly fabricated to fit within dedicated recesses in the insulative boards associated therewith. The recesses similarly must be particularly fabricated to accommodate dedicated pre-stamped metal circuit elements.